Contemplation, self-reflection or any moments of calm are rare in our house. The energy is frenetic and endless. As a quiet, introspective person who recharges from isolation, this has been a huge adjustment.
Isabella, our first child, was about as perfect a child as you can imagine for someone like me. She was quiet, followed instructions, loved to just sit and read books. It was awesome for someone like me who grew up in a quiet house where no one yelled and it was calm 99% of the time.
The Boy Wonder is… a bit different.
There is only one place where he is quiet. In fact, almost zen. It is when he is traveling and can see.
We first saw this during a New Years vacation.
Every other year, my side of the family gets together over New Years. We try to go on a trip or rent a vacation home or something. My mother had passed away and one of the things she wanted was for us children to continue getting together for holidays and not drift apart.
We didn’t really know what we could do with The Boy. He was quite the challenge in public places. No restaurants as he will not sit down for more than 30 seconds, no confined places for long if you wanted to keep your sanity because of the noise and the need for LOTS of outdoor opportunities so he can run and get his energy out. We really had no idea how he would do in any situation so like the Girl Scouts motto, we had to Be Prepared.
The year The Boy turned 3 was the year after my mother had passed away. We decided to try an RV trip that would go through her town of St. George UT and we could see her house for the last time.
This should probably go under the ‘Unintended and Unexpected’ chapter because no-one could have known how much The Boy would LOVE that RV.
As long as he was sitting in the co-pilot’s chair.
Initially we put both he and his cousin Wyatt in their car seats sitting sideways on the couch, securely buckled in. That lasted a little while but at the first stop, The Boy rushed into the co-pilot seat and refused to move when it was time to get going again. This was Day 1, hour 3 of the trip. We had 5 more days left. It was either fight with The Boy for another five an a half days or give in and put him in the less safe passenger seat up front – the co-pilot’s seat.
Yes, we are weak. But have you read the chapter about the Love of Loud? You have to pick your battles so into the co-pilot seat he went.
As soon as we got going, he was completely quiet and just looked out the window. Ten minutes of quiet grew into hours of calm child, looking out the window at everything. He couldn’t get enough and his eyes would dart this way and that, trying to absorb everything that was flying by.
This was uhhhhhmazing! We had finally found another place where The Boy could find some inner calm and peace. This was completely unexpected.
Luckily for us, we had no plan for this trip. Starting in Las Vegas, we drove to St. George and, since Zion is right there, we decided to go to Zion. Zion in winter is absolutely glorious. Beyond Zion we had no plans and just decided we would make it up as we went along.
Turns out Zion is totally awesome in winter because of the beauty and no crowds but also a wee bit on the cold side. Katie, my sister-in-law, and Christina were absolutely freezing. We had to move on.
Where is it warm around New Years? Death Valley! So we drove that way with a stop in Tecopa CA to sit in the hot springs for a night. Tecopa
I mention all of this because we were driving every day and The Boy absolutely loved it. We have never seen him so calm for such a long period of time.
One night we boondocked it just outside of Death Valley in the middle of the desert. We had a big fire with our camping chairs all around and my brother playing the guitar. It was a great time. Where did The Boy spend the night? Looking at the fire, completely quiet from inside the RV in the co-pilot’s chair! That is a true zen spot for the boy.
What I did not realize at the time is that driving every day was set in stone for him. He does not like to drive to a spot, set up the RV and then play for days. He wants to drive EVERY SINGLE DAY and as early as possible.
When he is ready to go, he will drag me by the hand saying, ‘C’mon, C’mon’ and take me to the drivers seat. Christina has made a few breakfasts and lunches while on the move in our RV.
Since that first RV trip, we knew that getting an RV was going to be an important part of the family. As you might have read, there are quite a few RV stories but this was the first!
The only other true zen spot he has is the bicycle.
Anytime he is on the back of the bike or in the Burley, life is good. You hardly hear a peep out of him. It is hard to get him to look at you and acknowledge you in any way. He just wants to go and look around.
This is true regardless of weather. A few years ago Christina’s parents were in town at the end of May.
If you have not been to the eastern edge of the Rockies, you cannot understand how quickly storms form up and dump. Any time you are out hiking, especially in late afternoon, you will get a 7-15 minute warning of massive rain and, very likely, hail. Usually in that order. So, you get soaked wearing your summer shorts and shirt with the rain first and then the hail comes down. Let me tell you. It stings when those suckers hit you!
The warning comes from a swift drop in temperature. It can be a beautiful summer day of 85 degrees and it can drop to 45 within those 7-15 minutes. Typically not that dramatic but it can and does happen. People die almost every year in the higher elevations due to this exact situation and are not prepared.
The problem for us is that you can’t see what is coming because we are right at the foothills. It is sunny one minute and the next are intense black clouds.
This is also true when you are out riding bikes.
I knew a storm was likely so when Isabella, myself, The Boy Wonder and my father-in-law John decided to go for a ride, we were prepared. Or so I thought…
Rain had just started. There was a bridge for cover a few hundred yards away or we could just go for it and get to the restaurant about 1.5 miles away and meet Christina and Maria, my mother-in-law. We decided to go for it.
“Let’s go for it!”
Yeah, we didn’t realize what was coming behind the mountains or that would definitely have not been the case. One of the worst storms I have ever been in was coming and we had no idea.
Instead of taking the left for bridge cover, we took a right to go to the restaurant. Taking that right also meant we were going uphill. Something else we didn’t consider is that John was on oxygen due to a lung illness that he had. He had to go a bit slower and be careful not to tax his lungs at 5,300 feet.
Within just a few minutes, the bike lane was a creek as all the water from the foothills comes running down the street as we are trying to go up. Isabella and I had to be in the street because you couldn’t pedal against the water.
We had been riding for about 10 minutes and had only made it about 1/3 of a mile. A smart person would have decided to turn around and go back to the bridge. Even though we had rain jackets, we were already 95% soaked through. So let’s just keep going!
At about the 1/2 mile mark, there is a roundabout and Isabella and I stopped to wait for John in the creek/bike lane. Just as we turned around to see how far back John was, a car came up along side us and hit the creek, intentionally sending a tidal wave of water into Isabella, me and The Boy Wonder, who was on the back of my bike.
I had turned to avoid getting hit in the face and I turned back to The Boy expecting to console him for now being 100% soaked with water and what do I see? Big huge grin on his face.
Even today if I could find that asshole in that car, I would beat the fuck out of him. Clearly we had a child and he absolutely did it on purpose.
But the grin on The Boy’s face somehow made it all better and it was just part of the adventure.
Someone in a Toyota 4Runner with a bike rack saw what the driver had done pulled over and asked if we wanted a ride. I told them no. We were already completely soaked, “You can only get so wet, right? Plus, I don’t want to get your car all wet inside. We will be okay.” So they drove away. It was very sweet of them and it may give you some idea of what drowned rats we really looked like.
I wish that were the end of the story and it was just some wet fun. What is the saying, ‘It is all fun and games until someone loses and eye’?
All was well in the story until the first lighting popped close enough to feel it in the air. We heard the massive thunder immediately afterward. It was no longer fun.
We had no cover at all and now we were closer to the restaurant than to the bridge. We had to go for it.
The lightning was right on top of us, over and over, with thunder right after it and sometimes at the same time. You could feel the electricity in the air.
Suddenly, the temperature dropped. You know what that means. The hail was coming. Everything happened faster than normal with this summer storm. Within a minute, the temperature had dropped to COLD. We were soaked and the hail started. At that moment, I was extremely excited we were on bikes. It was much colder because of the cold wind in our wet faces but the helmets protected us from the dime and quarter size hail that was coming down.
We found some cover underneath a business’ awning to wait the hail out. I looked back at The Boy to see a HUGE smile on his face. The bike is truly a zen place for him.
Facebook Comments